Pray for Asylum Seekers

By Jack Chui

Yesterday, I took 10 people to the asylum seekers detention centre. Half of them were first timers and the others had been there at least once. I've lost count of how many times I've been there but I've been organising these visits since late last year and so far I've been blessed not to miss one.

After going to the detention centre so many times and bringing a mix of people along, it does start to get into a bit of routine and each visit seems to get easier and less hassle to organise. However, yesterday's visit was quite special for me.

First, when we arrived we were greeted by some under-aged Sri Lankan refugees whom we've seen playing outside the visitors area but we could not talk to them because they are under 18. They really wanted to talk to us and share their email addresses with us so that they can ask us to visit them again. They could not stay for long in the visitors area because we did not have their prior written permission to visit them. I'm looking forward to see if we can visit these younger refugees at the next and future visits and being able to minister to them with the outreach group.

One man in detention who is my main contact when I'm looking for group entry to the visitors area has been sick for the last few weeks. I was a bit nervous whether he was even well enough to put the groups list of names through let alone be able to visit us on Sunday. He along with several other Sri Lankan's were not in the visitors area when we arrive and another friend we knew in detention went out to their rooms to wake them up to see if they would come and visit us. I did not expect them to come out of their rooms but I was quite touched that they all did - and they did it just to see my group of friends.

Many of the refugees we are friends with (Sri Lankan's) have been in detention for on average 3 years and most if not all of them have a pattern of sleeping at around 4 or 5am and then waking up after lunch. My main contact was not well and so he slept through his last visitors which came at 2pm but somehow found the energy to come out to see our group after. Thankfully with the larger group of visitors that came this time, we had enough to be able to speak to each detainee one to one. This meant that even I received a chance to get to talk to one of them instead of looking for new refugees for the other visitors to talk to.

After a bit of small talk which I've gotten used to when talking to asylum seekers the conversation I had became a bit more serious. My main contact who was not well is suffering from asthma and in the month, he needed two ambulances to go to the hospital. He shared that the ones in long term detention take pills every day, mostly sleeping tablets and he has been prescribed more now which makes things even more dangerous.

Another I spoke to at length shared about how they were lucky to be in the Melbourne detention centre compared to the other detention centres around the country. The Queensland detention centre it is very lonely because I think its not close to a metro area so visitors are few. As such, allegedly, there is one suicide attempt by a refugee each day and my friend tried to describe the few ways in which they go about trying to end their life.

I was a bit taken aback by hearing what I heard from the refugees during the visit. I have heard such things in over my time visiting the detention centre mostly second hand from Father Peter but hearing it from the refugees themselves somehow made my cold heart move a little. It kind of dawns on me the enormity of the struggle that each of these long term detainees face each and every day. Just staying alive each day while so basic for us must be a great fight for them - we can't really know how great that struggle is.

There is a marked difference between refugees that newly arrive and those that have been there too long. The ones we mostly minister to have been there so long. Its hard for them to sleep at night because there is so much anxiety about their families and the uncertainty of their future. Its easier to hide away from the troubles in the dark, and so they tend to sleep during the day. Each day as I can imagine is the same with no outcome in sight.

Hope is the key thing one of them shared about, how it was this that keeps them going each day. As time goes on, and less happens each day, this hope shrinks and the detainee uses his thumb and his finger to show the reduction. Its when it feels there is no hope, when I can imagine that its easier to not live, than to live with all the thoughts running through their heads and prevents them from sleeping. I am in awe of God for how he has kept my friends alive in detention so long. That's at least 800 days for most of them.

But how to help them get out of detention?! I am powerless like they are to do anything just like I am powerless to control the many things in my life. We can visit them to lift their spirits and hope and show them that there really are people out there that care about them, that they are not alone in their pain and struggle. At times, my hope wanes - I see the same detainees each month and little has changed since when I first visited them. How am I supposed to give them hope when I myself don't have much hope for them if any at all?! My words of encouragement just sounds hollow...

In my powerlessness, the one great hope I have is in God because with Him, nothing is impossible. He is sovereign over all of us, just like the detention centre and Australian Government is sovereign over the detainees. God is the only one that can really do anything effective to save them - we are just instruments in that great plan to save them. I must pray more for the refugees as that is the most powerful thing I can do for them. I can't control the Government and the decision makers who control their future, but I can petition God who will find a way through the seemingly impossible. I hope you can join me to pray for these the  disadvantaged who really need our love and prayers.